Betty gets a new Bag

Hello Betty Badger Fans,

I was a bit angry when I last wrote my BLog. I wanted to bite Mr Gove.  But you may have noticed that Mr Gove has been absent from my life in recent months so I haven't had the chance.  Remember how I used to see him every week outside DEFRA and he used to say hello? I think he is too ashamed to meet Betty Badger now since he has ordered the killing of 41,000 of my friends.   Here is a picture of Mr Gove and a Badger:

I am really excited to be going up to the Conservatory Party Conference in Birmingham on Monday.  I have asked to have tea with Mr Gove, but I don't think that has been arranged yet.  Maybe it will be a last minute surprise. Mary's MP Grant Schnapps says he is looking forward to seeing us both.

In Birmingham I am going to meet a Huwoman called Lorraine who is a founder of the Conservatory Animal Welfare Foundation.  She is very nice and has tried to convince me that some Tories like Badgers.  This is her picture:

She is a friend of Zac Goldsmith, also a Conservatory who likes animals.  Here he is: 

Do you remember my nice red bag that Mary bought to carry me to Man Chester last Conference? 

Well it has been to London Town every Thursday since then and got very holy and the final straw was when Mary tried to take her cat Rufus to the vet in it and he tore his way out. This is Rufus who is very fond of bubble wrap.

So we have been littering London with Mary's lunch including Bananas, and Peanut Butter and Marmite sandwiches.  She has bought another red bag to look smart when we go to Birmingham- because we Badgers don't like change .....

The Badger Kill-Cull has started and Mary is crying every day when she reads the reports from her brave friends in the Kill Zones.  Yesterday her friend sent her news that the rare white Badger had been shot.  Here is a picture of a white Badger Mr Lumpy took :

Also, a friend found a dead Badger thrown into a field of sheep- so much for Biosecurity said Mary.

Some of you clever Hupeople might have heard of the Zoological Society of London, known to many as ZSL.  Well, yesterday they produced a report critical of the Badger Kill-Cull and will be submitting it to DEFRA.  But we can guess that they won't take any notice.  Here is a link to the article: 

ZLS Report on Badger Cull

Mary has been busy writing to DEFRA rebutting their Weasel words.  She thought she was  communicating with someone called Mr Comms with the initials T B then I pointed out to her that maybe she wasn't writing to Mr TB Comms but to a department called TB Communications. She felt a bit silly...

With a bit of help from her friends, particularly one called Unknown,  Mary has a solution for getting rid of Cow TB. There is a TB vaccine for Cows but the EU said that Britain was not allowed to use it.  If it did then they wouldn't be able to export Cows across the sea to Europe.  I am not sure that Cows like to go all that way across the sea on ships from their families - I bet the Farmers didn't ask them.  Anyway we know that all the new outbreaks of TB happen when Cows are moved out of the TB Zones to clear Zones and take TB with them- nothing to do with Badgers.  All DEFRA needs to do is vaccinate all the Cows in the TB Zones and in the Edge Areas round them and not allow them to go anywhere, but stay at home on their farms. These Cows might have TB anyway because the test they use to see if they have the disease is only around 50% accurate.  This is a Cow, or maybe a Bull; either way, we Badgers keep well away from their hooves:

They can also vaccinate the Badgers in those areas and there are volunteers who would be happy to do that.  The Cows in the TB-free areas who are not vaccinated could still be sent away. They also have to improve that thing called Biosecurity and that includes not allowing those Bulls who travel around the country mating with Cows as they are probably spreading disease.  Also they must stop hunting with hounds.  60% of the hounds of the Kimblewicik Hunt were infected with TB and were scampering around 6 counties spreading disease.  Here are the Hunt Dogs:

Today I visited three DEFRAs-  Nobel House, Staff entrance in Great Peter Street and Marsham Street.   I had lots of waves and smiles and thumbs up in support of my little protest.   Last week one of Mary's friends called Richard came by to see us after a Chamber Concert. Mary explained that wasn't a pot that you put under a bed to wee into - that's a chamber pot- but an event where Hupeople sit around listening to other Hupeople making a lot of noise with their mouths and lenghts of string tied to bits of wood or metal.  The noisy people are known as Choirs and String orchestras.  We Badgers can make a lot of noise too.  Mary just found on the Google Oracle that we Badgers make 16 different sounds from Churrs and Purrs to Chitters and Keckers and Wails and Growls.  See?  We Badgers are clever. 

Last weekend me and Mary went to The Hupeople's Walk for Wildlife in Hyde Park, organised by Chris Packham.  

There were thousands and thousands of Hupeople there from little children to old Huwomen like Mary - it's her birthday on Saturday and she will be even older then.  It was very wet and muddy but we were all inspired and happy to be together listening to famous singers and speakers including Billy Bragg and my mate Dominic Dyer who runs the Badger Trust.  Everyone was sad to hear what we were doing to our Animals and our Land and Chris has produced a Manifesto  to make everything better.   Here is a link to Friends of The Earth with some pictures: 

The Hupeople's Walk for WIldlife

 I have gone on a bit so had better stop now.   Looking forward to telling you all about Birmingham. 

Night Night, Betty 🐾🐾

Betty Badger and Cubs to be Slaughtered

Hello Hupeople,

Betty Badger here..... but not for much longer.  As the Badger Trust said "This afternoon Mr Gove approved the largest destruction of a protected species in living memory!."

Today Mr Gove approved  the Kill-Culling of Badgers in 31 areas of the countryside starting NOW,  They want 41,000 badgers to be slaughtered.  That is more than were killed in the last 5 years.   It makes no sense as most of the scientists and veterinarians agree.  Badgers are NOT responsible for the spread of bovine TB; farmers are, by moving their Cows around the country and spreading infected Poo on the fields. 

Mary is very upset  and I am very, very frightened that my family will all be shot and injured and suffer and die.  

Mr Gove is a cruel man.  He wants to keep the powerful landowning farmers happy by killing innocent creatures.  Most farmers hate Badgers.  He has other options but they are not as easy as killing innocent Creatures.

Well Mr Gove, I have asked you to meet with me and Mary for tea at the Conservatory Party Conference in a couple of weeks time.  I bet that you are just too much of a coward to do that. See you in Birmingham Michael.  I wish I had TB then I would bite you and infect you.  But, as you well know, fewer than 4% of the 20,000 Badgers you killed last year had TB, so It is not very likely that I have the disease. 

Mary tells me that I must stop writing now because I might say something I will regret.  She asked me to tell her friends that the scab that grew when she took her tumble two weeks ago came off today- (I ate it!)  Also, the Pimlico dog is well and his Human companion is looking better than usual.  Mary went back today to Smith Square to see some of her old DEFRA friends and they were very pleased to see her.  And she had a surprise visitor.....  I will tell you about all these things if I stay alive for long enough...

But, for now, I leave you with the Badger Trust's announcement today:

Michael Gove approves the largest destruction of a protected species in living memory

The Badger Trust has condemned the decision by the Defra Secretary of State Michael Gove to approve 11 new badger cull licences in England in 2018, bringing the total in operation to 31.

As a result of this major expansion of badger cull, 40,892 badgers could be killed by the end of 2018, more than during the last 5 years of the badger cull combined. 

Despite a huge increase in the number of badgers to be killed, the Government has yet to provide any reliable evidence that badger culling is having any significant impact on lowering bovine TB in cattle in or around the cull zones. 

With no effective independent monitoring of cull contractors, the Badger Trust is also increasingly concerned that badgers will die long painful deaths due to the continued use of controlled shooting, a culling method which is condemned as inhumane by the British Veterinary Association.

The Badger Trust has already raised serious animal welfare concerns with Natural England over the trapping of badgers for up to 12 hours in cages in the heat wave in Gloucestershire and Somerset, under existing supplementary cull licences which have been operation since June.  

Responding to the announcement of the new badger cull licences the CEO of the Badger Trust Dominic Dyer said,

“Despite the Met Office confirming that Britain experiencing the most extreme heat wave on record during June, July and August, which has decimated badger populations across Britain, the Defra Secretary of State Michael Gove has today given the green light to the largest destruction of badgers in living memory.

By approving 11 new badger cull licences which now brings the number in England to 31, over 40,000 more badgers could be killed this autumn bringing the total killed since 2013 to over 75,000. This could mean that more badgers are killed in the next few months then the last 5 years combined. The 11 licenses have expanded cull zones in Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire and Somerset. The cull has also been newly expanded into the areas of Staffordshire and Cumbria. 

By 2020 over 150,000 badgers are likely to have been killed as a result of the cull policy, pushing this protected species to verge of extinction in parts of Britain which it has inhabited since the Ice Age. With the public costs of the badger cull now estimated to be well over £50 million and rising fast, the Government has yet to provide any reliable evidence to show the mass destruction of badgers is having any significant impact on lowering bovine TB in or around the cull zones. 

Under the cull policy cage trapping and shooting badgers is currently costing the tax payer over £1,000 per badger. However, badger vaccination teams across Britain are now trapping and vaccinating badgers against TB for less than £200 per badger, less than a fifth of the cost of culling.  

If the government really wishes to reduce the spread of TB in badgers, it should bring an immediate halt to the cruel, ineffective and hugely costly badger cull and introduce a publicly funded national badger vaccination programme.

A national badger vaccination programmes combined with improved TB testing for cattle, tighter bio security and cattle movement controls, will far more effectively reduce the spread of Bovine TB in cattle and badgers.

This is a far better outcome for farmers, tax payers and for the future survival of badgers.

The Badger Trust

Betty's Brolly Mystery

Hello Fans!  Betty Badger here.

My last 2 Thursdays at DEFRA have been full of adventure: a Mystery Brolly,  Mary took a tumble and my Badger friends came to visit.

I am itching... not with fleas but to tell you about my Umbrella.   I am SO excited because yesterday DPD delivered me a long thin cardboard box addressed to Betty Badger.  Now, this is the first parcel or present I have ever received in my whole Badger life.  The present is an Umbrella from Jolly Brolly in black and white to match my face. The whole family couldn't wait to use it so we went straight out in Mary's garden and played with it.  

It is a mystery because there was no sender's name on it .  If you sent to please let me know in the Comments section below as I cannot sleep for wondering.  Perhaps the DEFRA staff had a collection for me because they felt sorry for me getting so wet.  Or perhaps it was Michael Gove in a fit of guilty conscience.  Or maybe I have a secret admirer.....

Well, I was so proud of my Brolly that I took it to DEFRA today even though it was going to be dry all day.  People thought it was to keep the sun off- or to get noticed.  In fact I just wanted to say thank you and show the mystery gift-giver how happy and proud I was.  Here I am with my Brolly today:

Hupeople were happy to stop and talk and take my picture today because it was sunny and I had my Brolly.  I met a lovely Huwoman called Jo and a Human called Dean.  Dean was a very clever Human but he hadn't heard about the Badger Kill Cull which tells me that I need to keep standing here to tell people.  I waved at lots of Hucubs  and shook hands with a little Girlcub called Alexandra.  I have just had a lovely message from a fan I met today who tells me that she and her friends on the Book of Faces love me.

All wasn't happiness today because on our way home form DEFRA Mary took a tumble.  Fortunately she didn't squash me!  She said it was because she hadn't had anything to eat and her blood sugar was low.  I told her that she is getting too old for gallivanting around carrying Umbrellas and a family of Badgers.  A lovely Huwoman who was about to have Cubs, judging by the size of her belly, helped me up.  Mary eventually struggled up too.  Mary was a bit worried that she had ripped her tights exposing her bloody knee but I told her not to worry since everyone seemed to be wearing torn leg coverings nowadays so, at last, she was in fashion.  Mary won't be too happy about this but here is a picture of her knees:

 Which is not so different from this which I found on the Google Oracle:

Last Thursday I had a big surprise when two Badger Friends Boris and Betsy came to visit me along with their Huwoman friend Chris.  They all do lots of work to save Badgers and other wildlife in distress and I am very proud to know them.  Here is a picture of us all:

Mary has booked us into a Travelodge in Birmingham for the Conservatory Party Conference in October. I wish I could go on a Virgin train again because it was designed with a pointy nose in honour of Badgers.... and we got free nuts:

Unfortunately Mary is going to drive .... she is not known as Stirling Moss for nothing.

We are still awaiting the announcement from Mr Gove about the numbers of Badgers to be killed with flash bang sticks this Autumn.  He is probably waiting until there is something exciting on the News so that people won't notice.  I know that Mary will have rain coming from her eyes when the announcement is made as will lots of her Badger Loving friends. 

II have just seen that someone has kindly made a comment on last fortnight's BLog about vaccine for Cows.  Mary says she knows that but didn't want to over-complicate the issue for Betty Badger and her fans by talking about the test that was supposed to tell if Cows had TB or were just vaccinated.  The EU was involved in that too.  Mary also said that the test was supposed to be ready in 2014 so delay is still the issue.  Mary is a bit under par after her tumble (in fact she just had to get her Neighbour to open a door for her because her hands have stopped working properly) but she will reply to you about this when she feels better.  Meanwhile I am giving you a link to a story about Chris Packham and some Celebrity  Badgers (like Betty!) who might be killed in the Kill Cull.

Celebrity Badgers and Cull

So we are going to finish for now but, in case you are wondering about the sad lonely dog I saw in Pimlico in the rain,  well he is back with his Human and OK.  Here is a blurred picture I look to reassure you:

  

The Dog is warm and dry and comfortable. 

Next time I must tell you about the other Creatures who live in the fields and woods around my sett.  Those rutting deer are warming up again!

Night Night!  Betty🐾🐾

Sweaty Betty becomes Wet Bet

Hello Betty Badger Friends! The last two Thursdays at DEFRA have been quite trying for this Badger.  I thought that the 35 degree heat was bad but I have been nearly drowned for the last two weeks. Mary said it has been like standing  a car wash.  I didn't know what one of those was but isn't The Google Oracle clever? This is a car wash:

I got very wet paws...but there are advantages to rain. Firstly, Badgers love Worms- half our diet is made up of Worms.  When it is dry they go deep underground where we can't reach them so we get hungry,  When it rains heavily, they lounge around on the grass surface waiting for us to eat them.  Here is a picture of Worms that makes me feel happy and hungry.

Another good thing about rain is that it makes some Hupeople very kind.   Now, I have heard that Estate Agents have a bad reputation, but when I was standing in the pouring rain a nice Human came across the road from Garton Jones and offered me an umbrella because he felt so sorry for me.  See? estate agents do have hearts.  

And then two lovely Huwomen from Caffe Nero brought across a cup of steaming coffee for me and the cubs to warm us up.  They make good strong coffee, although it made the cubs a bit uppity.

After that a group of Huwomen came and talked to us and asked to have their photo taken with me.  Now that I have been on Woman's Hour I am a bit of a Celebrity Badger.  These Women are members of a group called Damesnet.  Mary looked at the internetweb and it looks like it is a club for very clever females who talk about things like Art and Politics and Cleavage. They were in London  for a Picnic,which means "eating outside".  So we Badgers have Picnics every day.  They said it was too wet to have a Picnic so wandered off laughing noisily having a jolly time.  I told Mary she should join them...

As we were going home we saw a young Huwoman in a pretty dress talking on her phone with water pouring down her face.  It had stopped raining by then and Mary explained that the water was coming from her eyes and she was crying. It seems that her heart was broken by her mate dumping her. So when your heart breaks water comes out of your eyes...  When my Brian was killed with the flash-bang sticks in the KillCull I probably cried too.

In Pimlico Tubeworm Station they sometimes have Hupeople without setts lying around but this week all the Homeless Hupeople's beds were wet and they had gone away to find somewhere dry to sleep. 

 

But we found a homeless Dog  in the station looking very sad.  He was still there whining on his bed when we came back hours later. 

Mary was in tears about these Hupeople and Dog, but the staff at Pimlico are kind and I'm sure they look out for Dog.  They even put uplifting sayings on a board every day to help the Commuters with heavy hearts.  

The security Hupeople outside DEFRA in Marsham Street are always very friendly and they don't send us away but one of them said to Mary that she was wasting her time and making herself ill standing around in all weathers .  Mary told him that since DEFRA won't stop killing Badgers she has to keep reminding people that the wickedness is going on.  I don't mind going with her and it gives the cubs a day out.

I promised to tell you how the cubs were getting on .  Benjamin, Bryony and Boniface are all grown up now and have their own mates.  They have their own chambers in our sett but come and see me often. The little ones Brian, Blanche and Buddha don't need my milk anymore, but it was touch and go when the weather was so dry because some badgers died as they didn't have water or Worms.  Luckily Mary has a pond and a supply of peanuts so we got through the dry season.

Of course I am very very worried about the announcement that Mr Gove will make any day now about how many Badgers he wants to kill this Autumn. Mary has been in correspondence with (which means writing to) DEFRA regularly.  She wants them to vaccinate Cows and and stop ALL cattle movements from counties where there is CowTB. They say there isn't a vaccine for Cows that is suitable.  Mary said that she finds it remarkable how Hupeople can send Humen and Huwomen to The Moon, manipulate DNA, create the Google Oracle and create Hucubs in test tubes and they STILL haven't managed to create a vaccine.  I think it is because they want to carry on blaming Badgers for TB so they have an excuse to Kill us.  Some Hupeople hate Badgers and enjoy killing us.

Oh, one final bit of news.  Remember how me and Mary went to the Conservatory Party Conference in Man Chester last year? 

Conservatory Party
Conference 2018

Well, this year it is in Birmingham where Mary has kin and she will take me up there with her.  We are contacting her MP Grant Schnapps to see if he can get us a ticket to meet all the MPs and talk to them about Badgers.  "In your dreams" some people might say, but if you don't have a dream, how will you have a dream come true?  

Our fan Tom who writes lovely poems and prose in the comments section after each BLog keeps our spirits up when me and Mary lose hope.  He makes us remember how important it is to save our Badger friends and to do what we can.  For older people like Mary she stands around and writes letters, while younger fitter people are already building camps in the KillCull zones  to save Badger lives.  We Badgers are so grateful  and glad that there are brave, wise and compassionate Hupeople on our side.  Thank you lovely Hupeople.

Night Night

Betty  🐾🐾

Beavers next on the Culling List?

Hello Fans,Betty Badger Here.

Mr Gove has been in the news a lot this week- probably because he wants to be popular and become the head of the Conservatory Party.

He was busy down in the Forest of Dean introducing Beavers back into the wild after Hupeople wiped them out.   These are Beavers.  They are a bit like Badgers but not as beautiful:

Here is an excerpt from the Newspaper report:

Mr Gove said: “The beaver has a special place in English heritage and the Forest of Dean. This release is a fantastic opportunity to develop our understanding of the potential impacts of reintroductions and help this iconic species, 400 years after it was driven to extinction.

“The community of Lydbrook has shown tremendous support for this scheme and the beavers will be a welcome addition to local wildlife.

“The project is an example of our wider approach to enhancing biodiversity. It is another step towards our aim of leaving the environment in a better state for future generations.”

I have to admit that I did snigger a bit when I read that.  Mr Gove wants to "help this iconic species" - Badgers are an iconic species too... His aim is to enhance biodiversity- but clearly Badgers are not included in that. Can you imagine how one day we might be saying the same thing about Badgers being reintroduced after we wiped them out.

The really sad thing about the story is that the Beavers are being released into an area where there is bovine TB so the poor things might get the disease from the Cows and then one day Mr Gove will be kill culling Beavers because they are wandering around spreading bovine TB.

Another funny article was about Mr Gove being awarded the title of Politician of the Year by the RSPCA.  Mary was drinking a cup of tea when she read this and sprayed her tea all around the kitchen.  There a was uproar amongst wildlife lovers and a petition was organised.  Why?  Because not only has Mr Gove killed more than 20,000 Badgers in the last year but he has also authorised the killing of Ravens, another protected species.  There are fewer than 8,000 pairs of Ravens in the whole of the UK and the RSPB is very worried. OK they hurt the odd Lamb, but surely that's the way of Life?

I can't understand why the profit from Animal farming is more important than the lives of Ravens- most of the poor Lambs are killed for meat anyway by Hupeople by the time they are six months old.  Given a chance, then they might live until 14 years.   You had better take a look at this picture of a Raven just in case we wipe these out too.

Mr Gove is also quite keen to kill all the Grey Squirrels too...

Oh and he is very happy for people to shoot animals for fun.  He has attended a number of meetings where he praised the shooting fraternity.  Here is one example from a magazine called Shooting UK.

He told the All Party Parliamentary Group for Game and Wildlife Conservation that “those who have an interest in game shooting have by definition an interest in sustainability”.

Read more at https://www.shootinguk.co.uk/news/defra-boss-gove-praises-shooters-94122#IoaOQwaFS6ZXAHau.99

Once again as a simple Badger I can't understand why Hupeople deposit 35 Million Pheasants and Partridges into my countryside every year then rich men shoot them and pay around £1000 a day for the privilege. They poison, snare, trap and kill our Foxes, and Crows and Weasels and Magpies and Buzzards.  Mr Gove says that these Animal killers have an interest in sustainability.  It seems to me that they are actually interested in killing and money.  This is a Shooter and a dead Pheasant: 

This is an injured Pheasant left to die:

Mary says I am going on a bit and getting upset so I had better change the subject.  But she has asked me to mention her Government Petition aiming to ban shooting Pheasants and some other Birds for sport;  She has put a link in here and would be very grateful if you would all sign it and tell your friends about it:  

Petition against shooting for sport 

Me and Mary have had a couple of challenging Thursdays at 2 Marsham Street with temperatures at around 35 degrees which is too hot for fur... Still, once again the Angels were about when a Human walked up to Mary and thrust a 2 litre bottle of water into her hand and said "This is for you".  I think he saved our lives as we drank every drop.

     

We  Badgers are all worried waiting for the announcements about this year's main Badger Kill Cull.  It is already hard enough for us to survive with no water and now they want to kill tens of thousands of us when we are innocent. Mary hasn't been offered her appointment with Mr Eustice yet.  She has had emails from various people at DEFRA but they avoid the main issues such as why they don't stop all cattle movements and improve other bio-security measures like they did when we had foot and mouth disease in the country.  The fact that they didn't review the Badger killing shows that DEFRA is hiding the truth and doesn't want its actions investigated.

This has been a bit of a serious Badger Log but I will tell you about the family next time.  We are all well and looking forward to some rain.  We are also very happy because the farmer has been cutting the Barley so we have lots of new straw to make fresh beds.

Night Night Hupeople.

Love, Betty  🐾🐾